LOS ANGELES — If you have to ask, you probably aren’t welcome. At Los Angeles Country Club, home of this year’s 123rd U.S. Open, it’s not so easy to become a member.
Just ask Hugh Hefner, who owned the Playboy Mansion behind the 13th green of LACC’s North Course. He was never allowed in, as LACC was, and still is, a place that’s not keen on celebrities joining its membership.
“You used to be able to see straight into the [Playboy] backyard,” one member told Sports Illustrated in 1995. “Early tee times Sunday morning were quite popular because you could look in on all of Saturday night’s partyers passed out by the pool.”
Hefner died in 2017 and the Playboy Mansion is no longer the Playboy Mansion as it once was — it was sold in 2017 — but he did have at least one lasting impression on the course: a zoo.
“You can hear the monkeys almost every time you go back there,” said Patrick Cantlay.
But back to our original point: it’s not easy to become a member at Los Angeles Country Club, and if you do actually get the nod, the price isn’t cheap, either.
According to multiple GOLF.com sources, the initiation fee is about $250,000, although that number can fluctuate from year to year based on capital assessments and club improvements. An initiation fee for non-locals can cost around $190,000.
If you are invited, and if you join, there are a bunch of other club rules you must follow (no shorts!), but you’d also be one of the few members of one of the most exclusive and best golf clubs in America.
LACC has two courses, the North and South, and the North ranked 10th on GOLF’s latest Top 100 Courses in the U.S. ranking. It was renovated in 2010 and has since hosted the Walker Cup and, this week, the U.S. Open.
Not a bad resume, right? Now, if only you could join.
